Yankees Injury Update: Aaron Boone drops big Giancarlo Stanton, Jasson Dominguez news

Right before the New York Yankees emphatically embarrassed themselves against the Mets to officially lose the 2024 Subway Series, fans were given a glimmer of hope in the form of a couple of injury updates from manager Aaron Boone.

Though it's still somewhat vague, at least we know Giancarlo Stanton and Jasson Dominguez are progressing properly.

Per Boone, Stanton is "moving closer to activation." The slugger was on the field prior to Tuesday's game taking batting practice and running the bases. Stanton said they'd be waiting until the end of this week to see if he would need a rehab assignment, but at this point, with how bad the offense has been, fans would almost prefer the former MVP to just stand in the batter's box and do nothing.

Stanton's been on the shelf since June 23 with a hamstring strain and the team has been guarded with most of the resulting injury updates. This is perhaps the most clarity we've gotten.

Yankees Injury Update: Aaron Boone drops big Giancarlo Stanton, Jasson Dominguez news

Stanton's seamless injury replacement in Jasson Dominguez went down just days before he did, which created a ton of roster issues, culminating in Jahmai Jones leading off and JD Davis batting cleanup on Tuesday night. Why? How? Stop.

Dominguez suffered an oblique strain back in June and the belief was that he would miss two months. Though he's probably still on that timeline, it's at least good news that he is participating in live batting practice at the team's facility in Tampa.

Boone added that Dominguez will be sent to Triple-A Scranton in a few days to "get built up before playing games within the week, so he is very close." Only problem? Once Stanton returns, the Yankees will be in the same situation they were a month ago when Boone said there wasn't a path to regular playing time for Dominguez at the big-league level, which kept him in the minors and resulted in his injury.

Perhaps the Yankees have seen enough from Alex Verdugo, Jahmai Jones and DJ LeMahieu to consider a greater roster change? It'd be nice! There are upgrades to be made, and we'd like to add Gleyber Torres probably isn't safe prior to the trade deadline, either.

As for other tidbits, we have these:

• Ian Hamilton is "getting close" after starting his throwing program. He has been out since June 17 with a lat strain and was shut down for about a month. The bullpen badly needs him back in action.
• Anthony Rizzo, who suffered a fractured forearm at Fenway Park last month, was participating in some pregame conditioning drills Tuesday. He was placed on the 60-Day IL and will not be eligible to return until mid-August. It's also unclear what the plan for him will be since he was performing incredibly poorly prior to the injury and Ben Rice, who has filled in for him, is probably a better short- and long-term option at this point.

It's admittedly not the greatest timing for all of these injury returns/updates with the trade deadline less than a week away. All we can hope is for the front office to make the right decisions, so can't say we're doing too well with that right now.